Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-01-28

! houses, keep the same In repair and fur
niSh all things needful to the schools. EN-.
plOy teachers and dismiss them for incom
petenCy-and this board TO be composed Oi
competent and judici0us persons" the
best informed business men of the town.
ship. Such men, As | said before, will
employ the most competent teachers, and
| our schools will be conducted on buSineS,
principles principles that bring success il
all the enterprises of life.
| The tendency now is To reduce the mum
ber of youth in the Sub-diStTCtS instead Oi
equalizing them. A recent report. that oi
1879. states the increase of sub-diStrict,
that year, in the state. to be Seventy-threc
and this. of course, means further reduC
ti0D in the enumeration. And let it be re-
membered, for have stated it before, thai
ont of niHety-fOur Sub-diStriCt> in CLARK
county tifty-twO have less than the lega
number of youth of school age, viz: al
enumeration of sixty pupils. and that Il
reduce these tifty-twO to the legal number
would reduce the number of schools in the
county to the extent of twenty, and thi,
| would reduce the school expenditures Ot
| the county from IS. 900 to SIC, 900 annually
and in my Judgment would improve tht
| character and quality of the schools still
I Eifd"l pei Gtul llt Nttlt Nltlt III ld'ls
exists in Champaign county. and believe
| generally through the state.
| am far from standing alone in my pref.
erence for the township system. With
| slight exception this system has stood the
| test of more than two hundred years in
! Massachusetts. Late in the last century
al application was made TO the Legislature
of that state for the passage of a law per.
] ptfttipty IN hn .,tb a li,-il Int
Sub-diStricts. Such law was passed. and
few of the most remote and least improved
counties made such subdivision. Horace
| Mann, speaking of this. said that he con
sidered this law, authorizing the townships
to divide their territory into school districts,
/ the most unfortunate school law ever
enacted in that state.
From the last state report from Maine
this sentence is taken: The question is
often asked why. with 50 large an eXpend-
/ iture of money. and with the comparative
low wages paid teachers. is the average
length Of school only twenty-one weeks in
! the year? The explanation is found in the
wastefulnesS of the Sub-diStrict system.
How is this? Massachusetts answers:
The township system reduces the number
of schools, so that the remainder can be
with competent teachers, and that waste OF
money caused by employing a teacher for
one, or even ten pupils. is easily saved. -
Again. give al extract from New iIamp-
shire report, As follows: We are not
alone in thinking that the Sub-district SyS-
TEN which perpetuates the district bOun-
diaries and rObS our children and youth of a
wise expenditure of the school Ppprupria-
| tionS. has fingered too long IN Our ate
Ii is a hindrance. burden and loss to our
schools"
Now, | say here and challenge inveSti-
CATION. that have examined the laws and
state reports of ten states. and without eX-
ception these reports represent the sub
district system as an incubus to the schools.
as detracting from the efficiency of the
schools and as wasteful of the public
money. And hear what one most cOmpe-
tent to judge has 10 say, Hon. F. f. White.
formerly state school commissioner of
Ohio. now superintendent of schools of
Cincinnati. Speaking of the two cOun-
try school bills introduced by me.
he writes: Il have read the bills with
much interest, and with a hearty
approval of the principles which
they involve. The township school
law of Ohio is the worst in
the UniOn-a complex wheel-in-wheel.
inefficient system. 1t should have been
charged twenty years ago. But little can
be done to improve the country schools aS
long as the present complicated manage
ment continues The country schools in
most of the counties of Indiana are inn
proving more rapidly than those in Ohio.
In the past ten years the Indiana township
schools have Overtaken and passed those in
Ohio Such is the testimony ef a man
thoroughly informed As 20 our schools, and
who has no interest whatever in the mat
ter. cite also the opinion of an
eminent educator, Hon. James H.
Smart, late state commissioner of common
schools IN Indiana. In letter recommend
ing the passage Of the school bills before
the legislature he says: The sub
district system has been almost universally
condemned by the leading educators of the
country, and at a meeting of the national
uperintendentS held in Washington in Feb
ruary, -, a unanimous declaration was
made III favor of the township system. -
He then assigns the ground of his prefer
ence. and closes with these wr Is: We
a 'e tr e | both systems in Indiana. We
now have the township system. and | think
that experience has shown that it is far to be
preferred TO the other" But to pile up alI-
rites. | quote from letter eceiyed from
Hon. }. 7. Wickersham. state school super
intend6nt of Pennsylvania for the past six
teen years. under date of June ~. 1850.
He writes: Your proposition to substitute
the township for the sub-distiict system
meets my heartieSt approval. In this state
We once had the Sub-district system, but
have had the township since 1854. The ad-
vantages are all that your state Superintend-
ent claims in his report of 1879" Mr.
Wickersham is one Of the ablest men in
Pennsylvania, has travelled over Europe TO
study the school systems of the east has
made the question Of the public schools the
study of his life, and no man in the land is
higher authority than he.
One more authority shall suffice for the
present. Prof. VIM. G.. Williams. of the
o. w. University at Delaware, in a letter
to me of March Q. 1851, says: I'm regard
to your township bill, i think some measure
OF this kind quite Indispensable for any ad-
vance in our school system. Our country
schools are no better now than they were
a generation ago, and another generation
will see them just what they are now. I'M
less the Legislature will abolish the Sepa-
rate district system. know whereof |
speak. | have been country examiner for
twenty years, and know that the teachers
trained in the country schools average
as low now as those of a score of years ago.
This state of things prevails throughout the
state. | sincerely think that the legislature
will enact no laws this year likely to prove
more beneficial to the state or more eco
nomical in the long run than the two you
have proposed" | could fill columns of
your paper with evidence to the same eff
feet by men whose testimony as experts
would be taken in any court of justice as
conclusive. And ask, can the state-the
to ignore such testimony?
The question is one of vital im-
portance. looking to the very per-
peiuity O our government, for we have
need Of all the intelligence, discipline and
forces possible, if the ship # state is to